The deleterious consequences of a patient's failure to comply with a prescribed schedule for taking one or more medicines (i.e., patient non-compliance) have long been recognized, and are predominantly manifested in terms of human costs and monetary costs. Human costs associated with patient non-compliance include, for example, poor health, death, a lengthened healing process and/or the emergence of new and drug-resistant strains of viruses/bacteria. Accompanying medical costs include, for example, hospitalization expenses, surgery expenses and/or increased insurance expenses. A seven thousand person per year death rate of Americans and a $100 billion annual toll on the American healthcare system have been attributed to patient non-compliance (see, the November 1999 report of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and Healthcare PR & Marketing News, vol. 8, no. 18, Sep. 2, 1999, respectively).
The main reasons for patient non-compliance are well known. Patient non-compliance occurs, for example, because a patient forgets to take one or more medicines, forgets to abide by various rules for taking one or more medicines, misinterprets rules for taking one or more medicines, or does not want to take one or more medicines (e.g., because taking the medicines is a nuisance, because of adverse side effects associated with one or more medicines, etc.). Also, patient non-compliance may occur because a patient does not feel that one or more medicines are necessary (e.g., because the patient feels better, because the patient does not feel any immediate effects of taking/not taking a medicine, because a medicine is merely a preventative medicine such as hypertension medication, etc.), because the patient cannot afford the medicine, because the patient runs out of medicine before obtaining a refill, or the like.
Patient non-compliance typically becomes more pronounced when a patient takes many medicines. For example, a schedule for taking six medicines is more difficult to adhere to than a schedule for taking only two medicines. The dangers and/or the risks associated with patient non-compliance also increase with the number of medicines to be taken (e.g., due to potential adverse medicine interactions amongst the medicines).
To combat patient non-compliance, numerous conventional techniques/systems have been employed. For example, as an attempt at preventing a customer from taking incompatible medicines, a pharmacy may track prescribed medicines that the pharmacy fills for the customer. Likewise, a doctor may track each medicine that the doctor prescribes for a patient. However, pharmacists and doctors have difficulty tracking the actual consumption of medicines and/or encouraging adherence to a medicine schedule (e.g., because pharmacists/doctors typically do not meet with customer/patients on a daily basis).
Other conventional techniques/systems for combating patient non-compliance include, for example, medicine containers that communicate with a central device to provide reminders and warnings to patients regarding when medicines should or should not be taken, devices that dispense one or more medicines at a time and then issue reminders/warnings to patients regarding the dispensed medicines, etc. Other conventional devices may record patient compliance information (e.g., when a medicine was taken) and may communicate (or allow a patient to communicate) such information to a healthcare facility or insurance company (e.g., to allow the healthcare facility or insurance company to monitor patient compliance). For example, previously incorporated U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/165,089, filed Oct. 1, 1998, which is now U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,730 B1, discloses a system that documents and authenticates cap removal data (e.g., the number of times that a patient removes the cap of a medicine container), so that the cap removal data may be reliably provided to a third party (e.g., an insurance company).
Despite the prevalence of techniques/systems for combating patient non-compliance and for monitoring patient non-compliance, patient non-compliance remains a significant drain on the healthcare industry. Accordingly, a need exists for improved methods and apparatus for increasing and/or for monitoring a party's compliance with a schedule for taking medicines.